


Wanting Something Never Known

by thenafics



Series: T's JayTim week 2019 [5]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alpha Tim Drake, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, JayTimBINGO2019, M/M, Omega Jason Todd
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-24 15:47:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21620422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thenafics/pseuds/thenafics
Summary: Tim has exactly zero shirts left in the cave. There are several notorious clothing thieves in the family, but so far he hasn’t been able to pin it on any one of them. Maybe it’s time for some more thorough investigation.Jaytim Bingo 2019- A/B/O- Staking a claim, nesting, free square (),scents, doting alpha
Relationships: Tim Drake/Jason Todd
Series: T's JayTim week 2019 [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1452400
Comments: 43
Kudos: 844
Collections: Tim Drake





	Wanting Something Never Known

**Author's Note:**

> very, very late :(  
> but also- about four times the length I originally planned ~  
> lowkey wrote all of this in comic sans  
> jason= omega, Tim= alpha, dick= beta, damian= alpha, Bruce= alpha, Cass= beta, Steph=omega, Babs= alpha  
> 3 year age difference, tim is 20, jason is 23

Tim has officially run out of shirts in the cave locker room. He’s currently wearing the shirt that’s been shoved in the back of his locker since he got it. It’s a truly hideous shade of purple that Steph delights in seeing him wear and says “Eggplant: Size Large,” in bubble letters on the front. Tim hates it in a very special way that’s almost the same thing as liking it.

There are several notorious clothing thieves in the manor, but none of them could be the culprits because none of them have enough shame to pretend it’s not them. Dick or Steph probably would have taken the shirts out of the locker right in front of him and Cass likes to wear the clothes she takes, so if it were one of them he’d probably know. Bruce doesn’t really have a tendency to nest, Damian would sooner burn Tim’s clothes in front of him than take them, and he’s pretty sure Duke would ask first. Like eighty percent sure. Plus he’d complained to Tim the other day about one of his own spare shirts going missing and Duke seems to lack the drive for manipulation and subterfuge to try removing himself from the suspect pool. Now that he thinks about it, almost every person in the manor has mentioned losing some sort of clothing item in the past month or so. Not unusual, but it is highly unlikely for everyone to be suddenly losing lounge clothes all at the same time. If it were a few years sooner, it would almost definitely have been Cass, but she’s since learned that she doesn’t have to hide any nesting habits. With properly timed nuzzles and some puppy dog eyes, she can have pretty much whatever she wants. She even has one of Jason’s shirts, which she guards jealously because it’s the only item of clothing he’s ever surrendered that doesn’t just smell like blockers and cigarette smoke. 

Tim decides he’s done with trying to puzzle it out and goes to the clock tower because Barbara knows  _ all _ . She laughs at him. He leaves in a huff. She definitely knows and has just decided not to tell him. He goes to Cass next, just on the off chance that it is her and because she might be nicer about telling him who it is if it’s not her. She gives him a knowing smile.

“You’ll get it someday.” Curse the batgirls and their superior interpersonal skills.

One of them must have talked to the clothing thief though, because they actually put a shirt back into his locker. Not one of Tim’s shirts though, because that would be too easy and whoever it is thrives on secrecy and confusion. It’s definitely someone else’s because there is no way Tim Drake and his bird bones fit a double XL. It also smells incredible to Tim, like black tea and the distinct burn of clove cigarettes like he used to find hidden all around the manor. He doesn’t even think for a second before he’s pulling the shirt on and burying his nose in the collar. Tim has never had a particularly strong ability to scent, even Dick’s scent, which is strong to the point of being overwhelming for most people, barely affects him at all. This scent though, is hitting him  _ hard _ . It’s like mainlining a Sunday morning or curling up in front of a roaring fireplace in the middle of winter. Tim makes the journey up to his bedroom half in a daze, so focused on the scent that he doesn’t notice the strange look Dick is giving him when they pass in the hall. Tim passes out the second his head hits the pillow, maybe even a couple of seconds before and sleeps like the dead.

For the next week, Tim wears the shirt around his apartment as well as to bed. He practically disappears into the huge tent of plain grey fabric, worn soft by constant wear and wash even before Tim got his hands on it. After a while, he has to go back to wearing his own pajama shirts, because if he wears this one anymore, he’s going to have to wash it and get rid of that incredible scent in the process. He puts the t- shirt over one of his pillows so he can have it near while he sleeps without ruining it. 

The next week a new shirt shows up in his locker, replacing the shirt of his own that he’d had in there. It’s red and paper thin and somehow even larger than the last one. The next week, it’s a plain white undershirt that gets traded in for one of Tim’s many Star Trek shirts. After that, Tim’s hugely oversized black hoodie (stolen a long time ago from Bruce’s stash of WE gear) is replaced with a charcoal one, just a little less heinously oversized, but still big enough to swallow him whole. Like always, Tim can’t quite contain the happy purr that starts deep in his chest when he catches a whiff of that Sunday morning scent as he reaches to pull the hoodie out of his locker. The purr is just enough to get Dick to glance over with a question in his eyes. It takes effort to cut the purr off, but it’s too late, Dick will not be stopped. The inevitability of his advance is almost enough for Tim to wish that Damian would drop down from the ceiling and try to kill him, for old time’s sake. 

“What’s got you so happy over there Tim?” Dick sounds every bit the teasing older brother as he reaches out to snatch the hoodie from Tim’s hands. If Tim couldn’t stop the purr, he definitely can’t stop the growl that wells up in his chest at Dick smelling what belongs to Tim. The irrational possessiveness that takes root somewhere in his animal hindbrain is screaming to rip the fabric from Dick’s hands and hoard all of that scent for himself. He’s stopped dead in his tracks though by the stricken look on Dick’s face. Dick has an incredibly sensitive sense of smell and that look means he probably recognizes who that scent belongs to.

“Tim, where did you get this?” He sounds just heartbroken enough to shock Tim into giving an honest answer instead of getting more defensive.

“They’ve just been showing up in my locker. All my shirts have been going missing lately, so I went to Babs about it. She wouldn’t tell me who it is, but after I talked to her, they’ve started replacing whatever they take.” When Tim says it aloud, it sounds a little ridiculous. He’s the world’s second greatest detective for chrissake, he should have been able to figure it out on his own, but he’d had other priorities. If he’s honest with himself, after that first shirt from the mystery source had shown up, he’d stopped looking for any way to stop it in hopes of stockpiling enough clothes with the scent to add to the raggedy little nest in the back corner of his apartment. 

Dick gives a choked little laugh at Tim’s answer and tosses the hoodie back to Tim. They both actively ignore the tear Dick is not so surreptitiously wiping away. Tim quickly shrugs the hoodie on and relaxes into its warmth almost instantly. The smell of it makes his head go a little hazy and his earlier purr starts up again for a second when he nuzzles his face into the fabric nearest to his face. Dick gives him a considering look before speaking.

“You and Jason hang out a bit, yeah?” Talk about conversational whiplash! Tim was sure that Dick was going to tell him whose hoodie it was, not talk about his relationship with Jason. 

“Um, yeah. I probably see him a bit more often than you. We watched a movie together a few days ago. Why?”

Dick shakes his head and mutters under his breath. Something along the lines of “Christ you are so oblivious.”

“Did you want me to tell him something?” Dick sighs in response.

“Jason used to nest really aggressively when he was a pup. I think he stole half of Bruce’s pajamas before Alfred found his nest.” Dick is saying all of this like it has some sort of deeper meaning. Tim is entirely and shamefully lost. Maybe this conversation would be less confusing on more than two hours of sleep. Dick continues on, not noticing Tim’s confusion. “He even got some of Babs’ stuff without her figuring out it was him right away.” The significant look Dick aims at Tim is completely wasted on him. Tim can practically see the second Dick gives up on whatever point he was trying to make.

“Oh my god Tim,” Dick says, sounding exasperated “You were trained to be a detective! I am practically spelling this out for you. Give you a computer program and you’ll have it turned inside out in half a minute, but this is what’s stumping you? No,” he holds up a finger “Don’t answer that.”

Dick shakes his head again before getting up and preparing to leave.

“You should go visit Jason at his apartment sometime,” he shoots over his shoulder as he leaves Tim standing baffled by the lockers. The conversation gets filed away and lost in the “too sleep deprived to remember,” section of Tim’s memories.

Unlike the T-shirts, the hoodie can be worn over Tim’s own clothes, preserving the scent for longer and enabling him to wear it outside of his apartment. It becomes his default wear around the cave when he’s working on the computers. He gets a few odd looks, but no one is rude enough to point out to Tim how odd it is to wear someone else’s scent across his skin without really knowing them. The furious blush and disappearing act Jason pulls the first time he sees Tim in the hoodie make Tim think it might be Jason that snaps first and gives him a lecture on propriety, but he’s back twenty minutes later, still blushing like a tomato, but not saying a word. Steph gives him an almost pitying look for reasons Tim isn’t even going to try to understand and they get back to work on rewiring one of Bruce’s favorite cars to play “La Cucaracha,” when he shifts into third gear. Maybe not the most savory pursuit, but definitely worthwhile.

Near the end of the week, Tim walks into the cave to find Steph and Dick cornering Bruce. He makes sure to stay quiet and unseen because the two of them can be volatile when combined. Bruce doesn’t do well with confrontation (which Steph is a huge proponent of) or emotional discussions (which Dick practically lives off of), so on the rare occasion that Steph and Dick do team up, it spells disaster for Bruce, usually in capital letters.

“So, Bruce,” Steph is saying, deceptively sweet smile on her face. Bruce looks cornered. “We have a bit of a bet going on about whether you or Tim is more oblivious to who’s been stealing the clothes. Winner gets to tell whichever one of you hasn’t figured it out yet”

“I have faith in Tim!” Dick chimes in.

“I dated the guy Dick, he’s a smart cookie, but people aren’t always his strong suit.”

Bruce is about to make a daring escape while Dick and Steph are winding up for one of their legendary arguments, but Dick notices and reels him back in with the collar of his t-shirt. 

“Answers B. Answers”

“Jason has always had rather, um, unusual nesting habits?” Bruce replies, clearly hoping that’s enough for Dick to let him go. Steph closes in for the kill.

“And how did you figure it out? Damian bet on you “catching the miscreant in the act”,” here Steph uses a completely inaccurate imitation of Damian that Tim has to physically stop himself from laughing at. Bruce hangs his head in shame.

“Alfred told me to check the feed from the camera inside the locker. I found out today.”

“Cass!” Steph yells out. Bruce is allowed to escape with only injury to his dignity. He slinks away, shooting Tim a pitying look but not giving away his presence.

“Who had Bruce and “because he’s a creepy old man,”?” Dick looks a little betrayed and is muttering to himself “I trusted you Tim.”

Cass’s response comes from right behind Tim, startling him out of total stillness.

“Duke.”

“New kid won? Nice! I maintain that if Alfred hadn’t interfered I would have won.” Steph says. Cass hums her agreement.

“Umm guys? What the hell is going on?” Tim squeaks out.

“Duke won the bet. He’ll be down to tell you in a few.” She addresses the next part at Cass. “Please tell me I’m runner up!” Cass nods “Oh hell yeah!” Steph claps Tim on the shoulder and is off like a shot screaming “Jason, where are you?!” at the top of her lungs.

It takes Duke a good twenty minutes to get down into the cave. He has clearly just been woken up from a nap and if Tim weren’t so eager to hear about what the hell is going on, he’d probably feel a little bad. Duke seems mildly pissed off about being woken up and Dick is trailing behind him, his earlier disappointment in Tim forgotten at the prospect of whatever drama he thinks is going to play out.

“Tim, I just want you to know that in my entire life, I have never met someone so smart who is so oblivious,” Tim tries to butt in to say, no, he’s not as bad as Bruce, but Duke steam rolls over him. Apparently he gets grumpy on lack of sleep. The tone of his speech is definitely a departure from Duke’s usual friendly self, even if the bluntness is pretty in character. “Jason is the one who’s been taking your clothes. The hoodie you’ve been wearing is his and if you would just pay attention to how the two of you act around each other for like, ten minutes, you would realize his crush on you is almost as bad as your crush on him.”

With that, Duke turns on his heel and stumbles his way back up the stairs. Dick follows behind, grumbling about Duke “not taking advantage of the rom-com moment,” and leaving Tim alone in the cave with a revelation he honestly should have been able to figure out himself. An undignified squawk from up in the house knocks him out of his daze and lets him know that Jason probably didn’t appreciate being cornered by Steph. 

Tim doesn’t see Jason for the following few weeks. Jason seems to be actively avoiding him, which Tim kind of understands. He’s probably embarrassed and annoyed at their family, so Tim gets it, he really does. But he also wants to talk to Jason. To tell him that if he’s interested in the same way Tim is, that he’d like to ask him on a date. So of course Tim does the only thing he knows how to do when he comes across a problem he can’t solve immediately; he commits an act of breaking and entering.

Even though before he and Jason had hung out pretty frequently, Tim has never actually been inside the apartment Jason calls home. Sure, he knows where it is and what all of the entry passcodes are, but he’s never actually been in. Jason has never invited him and Tim hadn’t wanted to break the trust they’d had by showing up unannounced. Now though, Tim kind of wishes he hadn’t listened to his common sense, because it’s immediately clear upon entering the apartment that Jason does not wear scent blockers when he’s at home. Every inch of the apartment is drenched in what Tim knows now is Jason’s scent. It’s heavenly to be surrounded by it and a nagging little voice in the back of Tim’s head is telling him that the only thing that could make it better is if his own scent were equally present. Tim very carefully stays in the main room, knowing that Jason would take even greater offense to him breaking in if Tim were to go anywhere other than the living room or kitchen.

It takes a little while for Jason to arrive home. He kicks his boots off in the entryway and gets halfway through putting away the bag of groceries he’d come in with when he actually notices Tim. Immediately, he gets this deer in the headlights look on his face. Tim gives him a little wave, which in retrospect seems like it might have been a bit of a dick move. Jason carefully avoids eye contact as he packs the rest of his groceries away. 

Tim is still sitting awkwardly on the couch when Jason finally comes into the living room. The nervous, almost scared look on his face seems out of place with the normally unapologetic persona of Red Hood. Silence sits heavy around them for a minute before both of them try to speak at once. Pause, awkward laugh. They both try and talk at the same time again. The heavy mood breaks for a moment before Tim indicates that Jason should talk first.

“You’re here about the clothes?” Tim nods. “I’m really sorry. I’ll bring them all back.” That fear from earlier is back full force. “I’ll even wash them so you don’t have to smell me on them.” A hint of a placating whine seeps into the words, the sound discordant with the fact that Jason is larger and higher in the pack’s structure than Tim.

“Jason, I don’t mind. I actually came to ask you something.”

“What?”

Now it’s Tim’s turn to be embarrassed.

“If you’d go out with me?” It comes out unsure, Tim’s nerves peeking through even though he knows Jason taking, and presumably nesting with, a large amount of his clothes is a pretty blatant indicator of interest. 

“Like a date?”

“Hopefully more than one.”

A purr rips free from Jason’s chest, surprising them both. Jason flushes brightly but nods vigorously. Tim eases into his own rumbling purr, deceptively deep for his slim frame because of his alpha nature. Reassured by Tim’s response, Jason cuddles up next to him on the couch. He shyly bares his neck for scenting and Tim doesn’t hesitate to rub his nose right up against the scent gland on Jason’s neck. 

If Jason’s scent was strong on the shirts, it’s practically overwhelming coming off his skin. There’s a sweet note to it underneath the tea leaves and clove cigarette that takes a moment for Tim to place as omega. He and the rest of the family had just assumed Jason was a beta, but the sweetness in his scent and the little cooing noises he lets out every time Tim snuffles over his scent gland indicate otherwise. 

Tim is struck with the instinct to get his own scent on Jason STAT so that no one else will get to smell Jason’s pure scent. He deepens his purr and guides Jason’s face into the crook of his neck. Tim only knows vaguely what he smells like, something piney and cool, but Jason seems to like it. He rubs his cheek against the scent gland, absolutely drenching himself in Tim’s scent. Both of them thoroughly scented, Tim pulls Jason’s face up to his, pausing before the last fraction of the inch and letting Jason make the final move. 

The kiss is soft, sweet, and everything a first kiss should be. There aren’t any fireworks, just a warm feeling like a blanket settling into place on a chilly night. They kiss lazily, more for the extra contact than anything else, and swipe their cheeks together where their facial scent glands are. Their scents have meshed together and for the first time, Tim smells himself second-hand on Jason’s skin. The pine in his scent is crisp and cool, blending with the clove smell that dominates Jason’s scent to smell kind of like the holiday garlands Alfred hangs up in the winter. They go well together in a strange sort of way.

Later that night, after a surprise nap on the couch and too much take out, Jason leads Tim to his nest. It is possibly the coziest looking thing Tim has ever seen in his life. The base is made up of a king sized comforter, clearly taken from the manor, and soft looking flannel bedsheets with Arsenal’s logo emblazoned on them. There’s a fluffy purple sweater next to a mangled red cape Tim assumes belonged to Bizarro. One of Bruce’s heinous velvet robes has been bundled up into a pillow with what Tim honestly thinks is a nightwing suit. There are little things from everyone in the family, a hoodie from Babs, Steph’s yoga pants, Cass and Duke’s shirts, a green silk scarf that screams Talia’s name, and a jacket in the same color, just Damian’s size. Mostly though, there’s Tim’s stuff. Lots of t-shirts he thought he’s lost, a few ties, a button up. Even a pair of his sweatpants.

Tim lets himself be led into the nest, shucking off his sweatshirt and adding it as he steps in. Jason curls up facing Tim, a hopeful look on his face now that Tim has just practically declared intent to court by adding to Jason’s nest. They fall asleep facing each other and curled tightly together. Hours later, they’re so deep in their slumber that they don’t notice a figure in blue take a surreptitious photo from the window sill. They do notice when they wake up to the photo in the family group chat, but neither can really bring themselves to care. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this and you want to send me a prompt or just chat, go check out my tumblr here ( https://thenafics.tumblr.com/ ) someday I'll figure out how to make that a link~ I love getting prompts and will do my best to write something for anyone who sends in!  
> As always, thank you so much for taking the time to check this out!  
> <3


End file.
